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Published: March 9th 2023
We are in warm and breezy Miami. I love it! Our day started at 3am when we left for the Springfield airport. I slept while Kamie drove. We flew from Springfield to Charlotte then on to Miami on American Airlines. This was our first stop through the Charlotte airport and I was surprised at the enormity of this airport. Charlotte is apparently the American Airlines hub. A hub is basically where all AA planes go… so if you fly AA, more than likely, you will have a layover in Charlotte to get you from Point A to Point B. Delta’s hub is Atlanta and United’s hub is San Francisco. Southwest doesn’t have a hub which is why they got into all that trouble last year and thousands of flights were abandoned for days. There’s your flight lesson of the day.
We had over an hour between flights in Charlotte. A few months back, someone recommended we try Bojangles. Bojangles is like a Popeyes meets KFC. Bojangles is famous for their chicken and biscuits. Kamie got a 2 piece with dirty rice and liked it. We both tried his dirty rice and it was fantastic. Kamie doesn’t normally like rice and
ate the entire container. I had a chicken biscuit. The biscuit was salty and the chicken was spicey but good overall. We ordered their famous boo-berry (blueberry) breakfast biscuits. They were crammed full of blueberries and covered in a thin, sweet icing. Scrumptious. Typical southern restaurant, they only serve sweet tea. I found a Starbucks and got my no-sugar, no-sweeteners, extra iced tea. I can cook chicken and dumplings and fry chicken all day long but don’t you dare put sugar in my tea.
We arrived in Miami just before 2pm. We took an Uber to the Hampton Inn and Suites on the Blue Lagoon. That’s where we are spending tonight. Nice hotel right on a lagoon (obviously). I told Kamie to be careful going outside to smoke… we don’t need an alligator sucking him up out there by the water. We left a cold 43 degrees and pouring rain in Missouri. We arrived to a sunny 77 and a good breeze. We walked outside the airport and my bones felt happy. It feels sooooo good outside. I no longer like winter. We walked across the street this afternoon and got Cubano sandwiches for dinner. We perused the aisles
of Publix because…well… why not? We got some plantain chips and water and came back to our hotel. We spent a lot of time in and out of our room tonight just enjoying the beautiful weather but I finally crashed around 10:30pm (9:30pm Missouri time).
I’m writing this blog on Thursday so I’ll go ahead and tell you a little bit about today since it may be a couple of days until I can blog again. This morning we woke-up around 6am. We had a small breakfast in the hotel and walked across the street to Walgreens to setup our COVID tests for noon today. Our cruise line requires we have COVID tests 24 hours prior to boarding or we can’t board. It’s costing us $260 for 2 tests. Ridiculous waste of time and money. If we test positive today… well… I suppose no trip?! I don’t know. I’d probably find some way to rig the email and say we were NEGATIVE. I’m not kidding.
Anyway, after our jaywalking adventure to Walgreens this morning, we saw a McDs next door and I wanted an unsweet tea. We walked over and ordered on the helpy-your-selfy kiosk and go to
pay and the McD’s worker stops us and says “we have no unsweet tea here” …but… ma’am… it was ON THE KIOSK…. This is MCDONALD’S…. you must have UNSWEET tea.. No. No. No. Are you kidding me?! I mean, I know Miami is south but I don’t think of it as “the south” if you know what I mean. Kamie got a Fanta (yuck) and I came back to the room and am drinking ice water. Whatever.
There is a family of roosters living in the parking lots attached to the hotel and the neighboring businesses. They are constantly crowing. Last night the noise was so regular that I thought maybe it was piped-in for some reason. This morning we passed several of them and some baby chicks while walking to Walgreens so they are definitely real. I noticed a hotel employee putting out a small pile of breadlike scraps by a side door for them and then we saw a hotel guest attempting to give one of the roosters a banana. These birds are just living their best life in a hotel parking lot.
We will fly overnight tonight to Buenos Aires, Argentina and board our cruise
ship at 11am tomorrow (Friday, March 10
th). I don’t know if we will get Internet access on Friday or on Saturday. The weather forecast for Buenos Aires is 97 and sunny and our first cruise stop isn’t until Monday in Rio! This chick is planning to spend three days reading, laying in the sun, swimming in the pool, drinking cocktails, and relaxing. Bring on the vacation…
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Mona Brown
non-member comment
TEA!
This is my biggest complaint when we go to visit Andy's family. I don't need a lb of sugar with my tea! But, we miss Bojangles.